Company can be this quiet

A kind look can be enough. An animal. A person who sits. A sky that doesn’t interrupt. The caribou isn’t fixing the meadow. It’s in it.

If you have no one tonight, you still have the option of not making it worse. Soft light. Water. This page. Then, if the quiet turns sharp, a real voice — Help.

We won’t tell you to be grateful. We’ll tell you that quiet company is a medicine some days, and not enough on others. You get to know the difference.

If you can offer that quiet to someone else this week, do. If you need to receive it, ask. Both are a life.